Super dark brown; smallish but stubborn head of tannish foam. With lacing. Smells roasty, abundant aromas of caramel malt and dark pitted fruit, a wee bit of vanilla. Leather. Taste matches but the vanilla is more upfront. Alcohol hidden so well which goes well with the smooth as silk mouthfeel. Call me weird but I reckon this is superior to the Chimay Blue. such a nice drop.

First pour into a chalice, second pour into an oversized wine glass. Sweet, dark fruit as it warms, cloyingly sweet and you will notice a sharp contrast if you chill it at normal refrig temps first. Nice compare/contrast as I almost prefer this one when it's colder. A bit thin and a tad too sweet even for me but solid nonetheless.

Fairly sweet up front, almost cola like in flavor. There is caramel, toffee, and candy sugar as well. It finishes a bit try with an earthy character, and some warming.

Bit thin for the style, although fairly smooth.

Not a bad beer by any stretch, but also nothing outstanding about it either. If you like a more earthy beer, this will fit your taste, but I wanted a bit more fruit flavors. Glad I tried it, but not my favorite quad.

Found this at one of my usual bottle shops and picked it up without hesitation based on a really pleasant experience with another beer from De Proef. Cellared for six months.

I've read that plastic corks are not harmful, so I didn't take that as a bad sign. Unusually long cork pulled free from the bottle with just the slightest pop, which I now know was not the result of carbonation. No best by date visible, even under close examination, although the cork had some coding.

Smell of sugar, slight bit of alcohol and dried fruit.

This beer was dead flat. Even with a forceful pour I could not raise a head. Very slight lacing that lingered the usual amount for a quad. Hazy tannish ruby through which light passed only when held up to it.

The taste was distinctive and pretty pleasant - sort of like fruitcake overall. The spice was not abrasive, yeast notes, dried fruit, sugar and occasional flashes of alcohol.

Mouthful was watery due to zero carbonation.

Overall - major disappointment. I can't say that I know what this beer is supposed to taste like. The cork (pork? for plastic cork) clearly made a good seal so I don't think it lost carbonation, I think secondary fermentation never happened. Bottom of the bottle had an unusually thick black layer of solids that mostly resisted swirling the last centiliter and did not have the expected taste of a yeast sediment.

De Proef's website portrays a company seriously dedicated to brewing, and the lineup of products is formidable especially given their intent to produce limited batches. I really liked Boerinneken and would pay a premium to get more of it, which makes this experience even more of a loss.

750 ml bottle into chalice; no bottle dating and unknown cork coding. Pours moderately cloudy dark reddish brown color with a 1 finger dense khaki head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation. Aromas of big raisin, apple, pear, plum, molasses, toast, dark candi sugar, brown bread, light chocolate, clove, herbal, and yeast earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of malt and fruity/spicy yeast notes; with good strength. Taste of raisin, apple, plum, pear, molasses, toast, dark candi sugar, brown bread, light chocolate, clove, light pepper, herbal, and yeast earthiness. Lingering notes of dark and light fruits, molasses, toast, dark candi sugar, brown bread, light chocolate, clove, pepper, herbal, and yeast earthiness on the finish for a while. Very nice balance and complexity of malt and fruity/spicy yeast ester flavors; with a good malt/spiciness balance and zero cloying sweetness after the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a slick and slightly syrupy mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a small warming present after the finish. Overall this is an excellent quadrupel style. All around great balance and complexity of dark malt and fruity/spicy yeast flavors; and quite smooth to sip on for the big ABV. A very enjoyable offering.

A: No foam, no lacing, no carbonation. The beer itself was dark brown in color.

S: Very boozey, chocolatey, and fruity.

T: Overwhelmingly alcoholic, which would have been fine if it has some sort of carbonation. Tasted like a thinned out chocolate with darker fruits infused.

M: Flat, a bit off - reminded me of a liquid candy bar.

O: I was really excited to try this, but it was certainly a letdown.

I was told by two people at the shop where it was bought that it was a good beer. When it was opened, I was already disappointed. No typical pop when opened - we then knew SOMETHING had to be wrong. I'm just thankful that my boyfriend doesn't mind flat beers...

I likes me some quads and this one is a pretty good one. Some red wine tannins, some burnt sugar, some boozy cake. Something in this reminds me of marshmallow and bubblegum but only slightly. Mostly it's rich, dark ale goodness all around. I'll be happy to sit with beer for awhile and enjoy my evening.

Well shit looking at the latest reviews this beer is kind of crap. Ow well I at least only paid like 5 bucks for a 10% Quad bomber.

A - The cork is quite strange like made of some kind of rubber or plastic. Could this be what caused the off flavors and low carbonation people are reporting? Opening the bottle I get a very lively full inch of mocha colored head, fizzy from ABV but still sticks around for a bit. Beer itself is a very deep chestnut brown almost pitch black like a stout.

S - Strong alcoholic esters with some sugary malt and very little actual fruit. The booze is strong in this one.

T - Has a very weird herbal woody flavor that seems to be a mix of oak and stone fruit. Next the fruity yeast kicks in giving a sweet malt flavor and then mild sherry kind of boozy taste. Finish has a touch of hop bit and a warming character.

M - Medium to heavy, rather syrup like ABV shines in taste which is kind of offputting.

Overall a very boozy quad that has rather weird flavors than your typical fruity/low ABV lasting counterparts (ST Bearnard 12) Worth getting if you like boozy Belgium's.

Let's start with the most obvious issue here. This beer is flat. Dead flat. Like a 2 liter of soda flat, that's been opened numerous times and stuck in the back of the fridge for you to unfortunately come across when your totally craving a fizzy thirst quenching beverage.

Anyway, it's hard to review something that's so off from the start. I love Belgian beers, and I was really hoping for something special here (it even says Brewers Reserve on the bottle), but it was not to be. Immediately after pulling out the cork you could tell something was off. No pressure. No champagne bottle pop. Actually, no pop whatsoever. Barely even a hiss. OK... but there were subtle bubbles forming after the pour, so initially thought, "OK, well at least we have some life here." Kinda wrong there. No life, just dead beer (and it had so much potential).

The beer actually smells great, and leads you on to thinking this may still actually be amazing. The aroma reminds of a nice Barley Wine with a strong fruit character, but that's where the promise ends. The flavor (while initially hopeful) is actually quite disappointing. It's brevity is unmatched (not a good thing). Since it lacks any carbonation, the flavor lasts for a nanosecond, followed by burning, which if you're drinking a nice whiskey is great, but not here. Not at all.

It's actually quite amazing that I've even devoted this much to review this beer. Probably cause there was so much anticipation of greatness, followed by unprecedented weakness. Maybe it's the plastic "cork" they used here. Maybe if they used a real cork the beer could have actually developed and kept (or begun to develop) it's carbonation. Cause underneath the overwhelming lack of carbonation there is an exceptional beer lurking, but unfortunately it's just not here.

Cellared for 10 months. Poured into a Globe. Cork opens with a really really weak pop.

Dark brown, some reddish highlights, looks good. No real head, some whitish bubbles that persist; not normal for a quad.

Aroma is fruity and complex. One of the better smelling quads, reminiscent of La Trappe.

Flavor is a let down. Starts off tasty - follows the aroma, finishes pretty bad, tastes more like a liquor, and the finish is extremely short. Reminds me of bad alcohol flavors, big turn off.

Carbonation is too low, mouthfeel is off.

Overall I like the smell and taste but the alcohol is harsh and I think its negative side is combining with another character in the beer that I'm not fond of. Perhaps its very oxidized, although it is less than a year since purchase and doesn't have as much of the cardboard type taste. (Might be worth noting that I shared a Baller Stout earlier in the evening...and its 13.8% didn't show half as much as this beer's 10%)

A: Poured a cola color with lower carbonation than I expected. Left a small white cap, minimal lacing and some white bubbles

S: I get cola, caramel with some caramelized sugar, toffee and some dark fruits on the nose

T: Taste has an immediate caramel, light candy sugar with some dark fruits, toffee, more caramel and cola midway to finish with some underlying booze. The taste falls flat on the end leaving only a sweetness with booze and sticky flat and bitter taste.

M: Rather thin, plain and medium bodied. Not what I was wanting nor expecting

A: The beer is very hazy brownish amber in color and poured with a thin layer of beige bubbles covering the surface that died down and left a thin layer of bubbles covering the surface. There are some visible particles floating near the bottom, but it is unclear if these are yeast particles or remnants of the cork that shattered when opening the beer.
S: There are moderately strong aromas of dark fruits in the nose.
T: Similar to the smell, the taste also has flavors of dark fruits. Notes of plums, prunes and raisins seem to stand out in particular.
M: It feels medium-bodied and very smooth on the palate with a low to moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer definitely improves with age as it becomes very smooth and drinkable.

Poured a dark brown body w/ minimal head and lace as the thickness just drags it down. A very yeasty/orange aroma, typical of Belgians, plus that nice sugary caramel malt rush, althugh I seem to also pick up dark fruits and a touch of bread. For a heartier beer I must say the smoothness, creaminess really through me off. Passes easily with citric and dark fruits piping in, and the fruits balance w/ this chunky caramel and sugary sweetness but everytthing is held in check, even the ABV as it does not bleed into the beer and it finishes ultra clean. Somewhat simplistic but rather a really enjoyable beer and made for a great sipper.

Very cloudy and had an acrid smell as though they fermented it with sugar that was not inverted. Little to no carbonation to hide the unattenuated malt and it gave me a headache very quickly. the flavor is very very flat on the tongue, like watered down brown sugar. I do not understand why this beer is rated as a B+.

Sampled at Julio's Belgian Beer Fest on August 14, 2011. It begins with a medium-amber pour with nice clarity and a decent head. While malts are noted in the aroma immediately there is also something more nutty than fruity there. The medium-to-bold body is smooth and creamy with excellent stability while swirling. The aroma begins candied sugar sweet but evolves into a sour, dryer finish. This beer was very nice altogether.

I've been doing quite a few of the De Proef beers here lately, so here is another one, which is one of their bigger ones, so hopefully this will be a treat. Let's see:

Appearance: I carefully removed the cork, but I had to pull it out rather than holding it back. There was very little foam after a pretty aggressive pour for this style of beer (right down the center of my tulip). There are some bubbles rising as you can see at the edge of the glass, but they don't stick at the top. The beer itself is very dark, but you can tell that it may lend a Garnet color if you hold it up to intense enough light. I can't remark on the clarity.

Aroma: Lots of fruity notes going on in here with plums and raisins being the most noticeable. There are some yeasty notes in this beer that are a pretty big player, but there is some dark caramel to toffee in here to support the whole thing. Overall, it is a pretty bold aroma, but there is nothing that seems overly dominant at this point in time.

Taste: The flavor is also fruity like the aroma suggested, but it is thinner and more palatable than I thought it would be. The carbonation is super low in this beer, and it is actually showing subtle signs of oxidation with some sherry and paper notes, but these aren't screwing the beer up yet. The finish is sweet with far too little carbonation to back it up, but the balance is pretty good overall with the dark malts providing as much balance as any hops are.

Opinion: This beer was really hurt by the lack of carbonation. I assume that the "cork" just leaked, but it was a plastic cork that didn't do a whole lot of expanding even after it was pulled out, so it looks like it didn't try very hard. I am not a fan of the plastic corks, so perhaps their decision to go with these corks hurt them on this review as the lack of carbonation is the major draw-back on this beer. I would try it again, but I am not sure if it will be me buying it. Perhaps I will come across a more presentable sample at a beer meeting coming up or something.

**Update** I now realize this bottle is flat. No bueno. Still tastes delicious, but you know why I'm unhappy right now.

I've given up the quest to find a replacement for Rochefort 10 (that is until I finally try a Westy 12), so now I'm trying to find the best substitute. Up until now, St. Bernardus ABT 12 has been the answer, but I think this Lozen Boer might be the new leader. I first had it at the Bar Lamar in the back of the Whole Foods in Austin, and now I'm drinking it while watching the Final Four while the wife is out of town. Maybe everything tastes better while I have a sense of bachelorhood, but both times I've had the Lozen Boer, I've been extremely impressed.

(All comments are in comparison to Rochefort 10.)

Probably the darkest of the available quads. Pours a deep, deep amber with not much residue.

Smells very sweet but not absent of the richness that a quad requires.

Its best quality is the taste. Not much of a hint of hops, which is probably why I'm so drawn to it. It's also not too sweet, which gives it a very nice yet hearty balance.

Pours very light. Not much head, and decent lacing for what head you to get.

Overall drinkability is top notch. As long as I can find this as easily as St. Bernardus ABT 12, I'll choose this 8 times out of 10.

From notes. Mahogany liquid rests under a fluffy off-white head that has great retention. Ruby red and hazy with yeast when backlit. Head leaves thick lacing initially, but it eventually washes away.

I could smell this from arm's length while pouring! Boozy esters, dark fruit, and green apple. I find a faint vinegar like sourness to be, surprisingly, slightly stronger than the malty sweetness. Rich and complex. Very nice.

Stongish carbonation with a few tingles leads into a rich full body with medium viscosity, and then a dry finish.

This first date went over very well, and I look forward to the next. She is a legitimately authentic Belgian gal. But I'm not quite as smitten with her as I am with St. Bernardus, Pannepot, and Chimay Blue.

750 mL dark brown Belgian bottle, and underneath the cage is a synthetic cork. Brewed to 1.088 and hopped to 40 IBUs. Pours a clear deep crimson, almost purple, with lots of carbonation and a thin yellowed-parchment head that leaves a few threads of lacing. Smells fruity and well-aged, with rich and caramelly/biscuity malts. There are notes of dark fruits, apricots, cherries, raisins, prunes, blackberries, pecans and a bit of spicy hops. The complexity follows through to the palate, which adds rich Munich malts and raisiny dark caramel malts. Perhaps some red apples and roast as well, with a few sharp phenolic notes that are eased by a light sweetness. It has a deep-seated carbonation, with a smooth, fullish body that finishes light and dry. The alcohol is well-hidden here, and it is complex and quite delicious - a well-crafted brew that would age very nicely.

Pours a very dark brown color with slight plum hues when held to a light source and a thick two finger frothy yellowish tan head. Decent retention, only slowly fading into a lasting cap that leaves sporadic spots of lacing behind.

A:Pours a murky brown color with a little bit of cola colored head. Quite a bit of lacing which was kind of a surprise.

S: The nose is off brandy soaked raisins which I kind of dig. Not the most complex of noses but I did like what I smelled. Little bit more dark fruit as it warmed.

T: Really well integrated taste. You get the dark fruit and then some. Dark raisins. Malt. Slight warming alcohol. Little bit of sweetness. No candi sugar to speak of they did this the old fashioned way.

M: Very low carbonation. Super smooth. velvety almost.

D: Super easy drinking. Not the most complex example of the style but a nice sipper for sure.

Finally pulled a bottle of this out of the beer cellar after a year or so, maybe two. After pouring I'm struck by the big plum and raisin aroma jumping out of the glass. The flavor has more the sweet dried fruit, but with a hint of juice, along with dried cocoa, leather, and an herbal spice mix. The body isn't too heavy, just light-medium like a dry wine. The finish is fruity with toffee candy note. Hardly bitter, it's sort of the same feel as a rich dark chocolate.